Chapter Five #2
“Eight months and one week,” he whispered into her ear, causing her to gasp.
Aaron rubbed her belly, kissed her cheek, and walked away, leaving her speechless.
Sunny frowned. Did he mean that he wasn’t with any other woman since her?
She hadn’t been with another man because frankly, there was no other man for her.
Plus, it wasn’t easy hitting the whole dating scene while pregnant.
But was Arron really not dating while he was in California?
The thought gave her butterflies and made her hope for things that she had no right to hope for.
Sunny finished up purchasing everything else she needed for the baby, including her breast pump, a few nursing bras, and a gown for the hospital.
She was pretty sure that if Aaron wanted her now, he wouldn’t by the time their daughter got done with her body.
Sunny had no idea what to expect during the whole delivery process.
She was supposed to attend Lamaze classes, but the thought of going to them alone scared the hell out of her.
She didn’t want to sit in a classroom full of pregnant, happy women and their partners, while everyone around her wondered where her baby’s father was.
Now, she was afraid that it was too late to sign up for birthing classes.
Her daughter would be here in a few short weeks, and she had no idea what she was doing.
By the time the sales lady bagged Sunny’s final items and she found her way to the front door, she was full-on sobbing, trying to wipe away her tears so Aaron wouldn’t see.
She felt foolish for not making sure that she was ready for her baby.
It was like she was waiting for Aaron to ride back into town and swoop her up to take care of them both.
And now that was exactly what was happening.
She was no better than a damsel in distress, and her grandmother would not approve of her not being ready for this baby because she was heartbroken and waiting for her knight in shining armor.
The old Sunny would have handled the situation so much better.
She was always a grab-the-bull-by-the-balls kind of girl, but now she was a sobbing puddle of need, and that thought sent her over the edge.
She could see the concern on Aaron’s face before he even reached her.
He slammed the cab door to his truck shut and rushed to meet her at the store’s entrance.
“Honey, tell me what’s wrong.” He pulled her into his arms, and she willingly let him comfort her.
After the past four months of not knowing if she was ever going to see him again, she didn’t have it in her to be strong anymore.
She wanted to be okay with needing him, but she was also afraid that he would need to leave again.
God, she felt like she was on an emotional roller coaster, and she wanted to get off.
“Baby, why are you crying?” he asked. Sunny shook her head, wanting to be able to make words come out of her mouth, but every time she opened her lips, only sobs escaped.
How could she tell him that she failed as a mother before the baby even entered the world?
Aaron pulled her over to his truck and helped her up into the cab, then secured the seat belt around her and the baby.
She looked behind her at the piles of pink baby items and knew that he wouldn’t understand.
He was in town for mere hours and found out that he was going to be a dad just yesterday, and there he was, prepared for their baby.
But she couldn’t get herself together after eight months of knowing that she was going to be a mother.
“Sunny, can you tell me why you are crying?” He waited her out.
“Did someone give you a hard time in the store?” She shook her head, and he ventured another guess.
“Are you not feeling well?” She shook her head again.
This was going nowhere fast. She couldn’t sit in his truck while they played twenty questions.
She wiped her nose on her sweater and tried to calm down.
“I wasn’t ready for her,” she whispered.
“I had eight months to get ready for our baby, and I failed. You sweep in, and within a day, you have everything that our daughter will need for the first six months of her life. What was I thinking? I don’t even know how she is going to come out because I was too big of a chicken to go to Lamaze class.
” She hiccupped, and Aaron laughed and pulled her free from her seatbelt, sliding her across the seat to sit on his lap.
She rested her head against his chest and felt more at ease with every beat of his heart.
“You make everything better. How do you do that, Aaron?” He shrugged, and they sat in silence for a while.
“I don’t always make everything all right, Sunny. I couldn’t save the men in my company all those years ago,” he whispered. Sunny wanted to take back her words before she even said them, but she knew that sooner or later, they would need to discuss Aaron’s past.
“Will you tell me about what happened?” Sunny gently kissed his neck, craving his closeness. He wrapped his arms around her and sighed.
“Yeah, I think it’s time that I tell you everything, Sunny. I’m just afraid that after you know all of it, you won’t want me around either of you.” He rested his hand on her belly, and she immediately wanted to protest.
“Aaron, there is nothing that you can say that will change my wanting you in our lives. We both need you.” She gently kissed his mouth, and he helped her back to her seat and buckled her in.
“We’ll see, honey. Let’s get you some food, and then we can go home and have a nice long talk.
” She nodded. Sunny knew that Aaron ran away to avoid having to tell her about his past. But now she needed to hear the whole story because their future depended on it.
He knew that it was only a matter of time before his old friend Aaron would figure out that he was still alive.
Hell, he couldn’t wait for that day. Travis ran his hands over his face, feeling every line and mark that was left behind from the surgeries.
Sure, they fixed him right up, made him look as if nothing ever happened.
But they couldn’t make the pain go away—he would live with that for the rest of his life.
He was hooked on Percocet for a while until he realized that he was becoming a zombie.
He needed to keep his wits about him if he was ever going to make Aaron Steele pay for leaving him on the side of that mountain.
He lost everything—his wife, his two kids, even his face.
By the time the doctors were done “fixing” his face, his own family didn’t even recognize him.
At first, his wife said that it didn’t matter to her, that she loved him for who he was, not what he looked like.
But after he got hooked on those damn pills, she gave up on him.
She left, taking the kids, telling him that she couldn’t deal with who he had become.
Well, he had a news flash for her—he didn’t like who he became either, but he couldn’t run away and leave.
He was stuck with a face that he hardly recognized every time he looked in the mirror.
After he did a short stint in rehab, he tried to contact his family, desperate to get them back, but his wife moved on, and his kids wanted nothing to do with him.
It was almost like he didn’t exist anymore, and he liked it that way.
Everyone thought that he was dead. Aaron and two other men made it off that mountain, never knowing that he was still alive when they retreated.
He found his way back down only to be picked up by another company.
He was listed as a John Doe for months until he was coherent enough to tell the doctors his name.
He asked to keep everything hush-hush, not wanting to draw attention to himself or his family; they had all been through enough.
Months turned into years, and no one from his old company ever looked for him.
They just assumed that he died up on the mountain with the rest of the poor souls.
Now he planned on using his non-existence to his advantage.
Poor Aaron wouldn’t know what hit him until it was too late.
He followed Aaron out to California after he left Harvest Ridge.
He thought that he was finally going to get his chance to take his old friend out and make it look like an accident.
But then, Aaron seemed in a hurry to get back to town, and now Travis understood why.
His little girlfriend was pregnant, and from the way he was taking care of her, the baby was his.
Well, this was a nice surprise—one that he could use to his advantage.
He wanted Aaron to feel what it was like to lose his family the way that his was ripped away from him.
Aaron would experience that awful pain of knowing that his family was better off without him, and there would be nothing that he could do about it.
Then, he would finish the job that Aaron couldn’t.
He would make sure that his old friend would never walk away, though, and he would make it all look like an accident.
Travis lit a cigarette and watched as Aaron’s truck disappeared down the road, heading back to his condo.
“See you soon, Aaron,” he promised.